The company said the key MSHA green light would allow it and its West Virginia-based partner CAI Industries/Gauley Robertson to fully market it and install the systems underground in permissible locations.

RSL’s system incorporates fiber optic lighting technology designed to make safer, easier movements for scoops, continuous miners, shuttle cars, roof bolters and other vehicles in permissible and non-permissible environments by producing non-electrical light.

Rugged, side-emitting fiber optic cable is affixed to equipment surfaces to “outline” it, which significantly increases its visibility in dark environments. Along with that comes increased safety and reduced accident-risk.

The design of the lighting makes for easier, faster repair and replacements than electrical lighting systems. Better yet the non-electrical side-emitting fiber optic cables eliminate shock hazard, electrocution or explosion risks. Without electrical cables, equipment design is simplified, so repair times and technical training are faster.

“All the pieces are now in place for RSL and its partners, CAI and Gauley-Robertson, to bring this technology to market and change the way we illuminate mines in the United States,” RSL president and chief technology officer Giovanni Tomasi said.

“We are confident this new technology and the ensuing line of products it will generate, including the newly-approved Mine Equipment Visibility Outlining System, has the potential to change the way we illuminate mines and mine equipment forever,” CAI/Gauley-Robertson president Chuck Lilly added.

RSL and CAI/Gauley-Robertson inked their three-year sales and distribution agreement in March.